Reasons for Running
Back in March of this year, I
blogged about a
phenomenal piece from Ryan Sholin, who had just decided to leave the
struggling San Jose Mercury News. Ryan is one of a number of newspaper
people who understood why newspapers were struggling so hard to survive
in the world of the Web, and began writing about it. My post also
referenced
Scott Karp's comments on that same struggle, which have tremendous
relevance to the constituents of the IDPF:
[It] is not an indictment of the value
of print newspapers conceptually — it’s an indictment of newspapers
that are still publishing the same content on paper as they are
publishing on the web. Newspapers used to see the web as a
complement, a value add to the print edition. Now they have to flip
the equation
Publishers must accept that digital
delivery is now the coin of the realm for content, and that open
standards and collaboration are critical to survival and success in a
digital age. Those publishers willing to see the world through a digital
lens and move forward need an active and vibrant community that both
advocates for those standards, and enables the collaboration and
education that drive real innovation. I am running for this position
because I believe I can help the IDPF expand its influence and become an
even more effective advocate for the kind of open standards and
collaboration that O'Reilly Media has been at the center of for more
than 30 years.
Background
O'Reilly Media has long been a visionary
company in technology, not only for what we publish, but how we publish
it. O'Reilly was instrumental in the
development of the DocBook standard (first as SGML, later adopted
for XML), built the world's first commercial Web "portal" in 1993 (the
Graphical Network Navigator, later sold to AOL), and in a
partnership with one of our largest competitors built
Safari Books Online, a hugely successful subscription-based Web
library of technical and business books (and later video).
I am the Director of Publishing Technology at O'Reilly, where I oversee
the production and distribution of book content into multiple print,
Web, and ebook formats. I've led several strategic digital publishing
initiatives at O'Reilly, including:
-
Migrating to an XML-based single-source
production workflow
-
Designing and deploying an
open-standards-based XML content distribution platform
-
Initiating O'Reilly's involvement in
developing an EPUB output option for the open-source DocBook XSL
stylesheets
-
Adapting O'Reilly content for
distribution in DRM-free EPUB format
I'm also the General Manager of the Tools of Change for Publishing
division at O'Reilly, which produces the acclaimed annual
TOC Conference as well as the
TOC blog and
TOC online community, which are together emerging as a hub of
activity for publishers and people innovating at the intersection of
publishing and technology.
In addition to serving as a member of O'Reilly's corporate steering
committee, I am a technical and strategic adviser to
Safari Books Online, a participant in the
Copyright Clearance Center's Publishers Advisory Group, and a member
of the
Bookshare Education Advisory Board.
Before rising to a formal leadership role within O'Reilly, I spent
several years working directly with a variety of digital publishing
tools and technologies, including XML, HTML, FrameMaker, Quark,
InDesign, Word, and PDF, as well as developing new tools using Perl,
Ruby, VBA, and the XML-based XSLT and XQuery languages. In 2004, I wrote
"Word
Hacks: Tips & Tools for Taming your Text", published by O'Reilly. I
hold a B.S. in Media Studies from the
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, and a
High-Tech MBA from
Northeastern University in Boston.
Vision Ideas
Besides what I mentioned above about
increasing the IDPF's role as an advocate for open standards and
collaboration among publishers, my vision for the IDPF includes three
key initiatives:
-
To broaden the IDPF's influence and to
acknowledge the shifting landscape of publishing by expanding
membership into other areas of paid content, such as newspapers,
magazines, and even the emerging new media businesses being built
around online publishing.
-
To improve the value and utility of the
IDPF website to members by expanding the quality and breadth of
material available. In addition to adding more content (in more
flexible formats), develop more sophisticated research and data
tools for aggregating and analyzing statistics beyond ebook sales.
-
To increase quality and compatibility of
EPUB support among hardware and software vendors by actively
engaging high-level managers. For example, lobbying Google to add
EPUB to the export options within Google Docs.
To support these initiatives and the broader work of the IDPF, I
envision expanding the educational and event programs to increase
revenue. My experience with O'Reilly's successful events business will
be an asset for expanding those programs.
Related Writings
Sincerely,
Andrew Savikas
Director of Publishing Technology, General Manager Tools of Change for
Publishing
O'Reilly Media
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